On Dance

...This clown flashed vibrant colors and twitched sneaky grins throughout the performance, but never did we lose sight of the extra-fine form...

...For me, Baryshnikov was most satisfying as the central danseur in the third movement ("Allegro Vivace") of Symphony in C. The amazing spring of his jumps and his facility for sustaining their arcs have rarely seemed so unleashed or appropriately euphoric...

...This combination alone should make the next six months with NYCB compellingly unpredictable...

...Just as Balanchine focused his drama on the shape of his movement, so Baryshnikov "played" his part by sustaining the small moves as surely as he articulated the spectacular ones...

...Whatever the case, Robbins' piece gives us a glimpse of what Baryshnikov looked like before his American career...

...Baryshnikov was again without character name or dramatic situation in Donizetti Variations (originally made in 1960 as Variations from Don Sebastian...

...Playing a role out of theater history that could be related to his own performance of the doll Petrouchka, he was appropriately giddy and noticeably naughty where Villella had been sweet and impish...

...A European artist, Baryshnikov is more thoughtful, more deliberate than his light-hearted, straightforward American counterpart...

...The contrast between the two is most striking in Rubies, the Stravinsky section of Balanchine's full-length Jewels...

...But there are differences as well...

...This is hardly surprising, for Baryshnikov and Villella have much in common: They exhibit comparable power and skill...

...For one thing, his defection from the USSR in 1974 could not be predicted...

...Even then his technical ability as a ballet dancer was unparalleled...

...His lead parts to date in Rubies, Harlequinade, Donizetti Variations, Prodigal Son, and the third movement of Symphony in C (all by Balanchine), plus Dances at a Gathering and The Four Seasons (by Jerome Robbins), were originally created or especially revived, for Villella—testifying to the American's formidable talents and to the Russian's stern challenges...

...When Baryshnikov beat his fist against his thighs before launching into a jack-knifing grand jete, he successfully transmitted vehement anger...

...Still, we were treated to passages of powerful freedom...

...His last touch was a head-wagging rest in which he kicked up his heels like a bird flicking its tail in triumph...

...To study Baryshnikov within the framework of the NYCB is not to set him above the company's principal members, or to expect him to duplicate their particularities...

...Petersburg Imperial) Ballet Academy, creating a certain affinity between the two men...

...and they both have similar temperaments —bright-toned and smilingly sweet...

...With nothing more specific than the choreographer's tricky configurations to guide him, the leading man is asked to respond to the composer's "Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra" as a sly, athletic danseur, a playful partner to Patricia McBride's Ruby ballerina...

...Baryshnikov found firmer ground as the maestro-of-mischief in Harlequinade...

...There was nothing in the design that tested Baryshnikov's capabilities, but there were plenty of pyrotechnical familiarities to underscore his virtuosity...

...His intense concentration on movement and mime put the piece in a recharged light that provided it with an extraordinary dynamism and clarity...

...Perhaps he wanted the newcomer to feel at home, perhaps he was playing safe, or, being familiar with the Bol-shoi, maybe he couldn't wait to have a real Russian fling...

...On the other hand, like Baryshnikov, Balanchine is a graduate of the Leningrad Kirov (then the St...

...when his Son was eventually humbled, he gathered his powers of control to prolong an unending tension...

...Consequently, his version of the solos, with their folk-colored classicism, evoked more the manner of their choreographic design than their method...

...No one would have guessed at the time that by the end of the decade the Russian Wonder would be in a position to perform many of the celebrated roles Villella created—and under the direction of the NYCB's George Bal-anchine, with Villella available as coach...

...After a series of beaten grands jetes that reversed direction at their peak, Baryshnikov executed a succession of whipping grandes pirouettes and finished with what looked like a skater's sit-spin (actually a pirouette with a generous plie...

...Now in his sixth month at the New York City Ballet, Baryshnikov is increasingly filling roles ordinarily danced by Villella, who has suffered physical problems recently and seldom performs...

...The result was an overly accented performance...

...The world's eyes are understandably trained on the fine distinctions of this new dancer and the unique company he has now joined...

...It was his smallest part so far, but his most ecstatic portrayal...

...Because many of the moves were fairly simple, their impact derived from size and accent...

...Finally, in Robbins' The Four Seasons, Baryshnikov was cast as the leader of the autumnal revels (to Vivaldi's ballet music from / Vespri Siciliani...

...By fashioning this culminating section of his quarto-ballet as a bacchanal that takes as its model Leonid Lavrosky's Soviet staging of Walpurgis Night, Robbins elicited a hell-bent and heroic performance from Baryshnikov...

...Though Donizetti is more orthodox than Stravinsky, Variations is nevertheless fraught with witty, busy activity that was handled with forthright aplomb...

...In Prodigal Son, Balanchine's 1929 work for Diaghalev's company, Baryshnikov discovered another contemporary part with links to his traditional training...

...Villella, for whom the role was created, gave us a foxy, good-natured young man who complemented Stravinsky's caprice with teasing, quick-silver moves...

...And comprehensible as the presentation of steps were, he still looked distractingly foreign among the NYCB ensemble...

...The pattern was a simple diagonal of brilliant turns connected by billowing jumps, like a row of columns joined together by vaulting arches...

...In Baryshnikov's interpretation, characteristic Balanchine responses to Stravinsky—emphatic heelwork, stomping and grinding turn-in/turn-out leg-work, and unorthodox partnering?were all distinctly treated for the sheer novelty they presented to the Russian's "traditional" background...

...But the choreographic eccentricities in this dance for a lead couple and a corps of nine are less pronounced than in Rubies, and Baryshnikov proved proportionally more comfortable...

...He brings to the stage an intense commitment to the physical design of a piece, and an equal concern for delineating its dramatic coloration...

...On occasion he is overwhelmingly emphatic, although his generous intentions—using new situations to exercise his great gifts—usually outshine this shortcoming...

...The high-stepping from prank to prank expressed delicacy and strength, and the culminating solo in the second of the ballet's two acts was a performance of devil-may-care abandon atop pure classical attention...

...In this first new role made especially for him, Baryshnikov found himself very close to his roots, almost as if Robbins had seen fit to comfort rather than challenge the Russian Wonder...

...for another, Balanchine's anti-guest-artist policy is superceded only by his determination to de-emphasize superstar performers within the company...

...Particularly notable was the dancer's exit, a series of embolic turns in the Allegro movement that started neatly, with precise, large kicks, then, as he gained momentum, his swift rotations spun him out of sight like a whirling dervish...

...Awed by his potent thrust and expansive power, some English critics compared him to Edward Villella of the New York City Ballet (NYCB) when he was in his mid-20s and on his way to becoming one of the foremost dance virtuosos in the United States...

...In Robbins' Dances at a Gathering, Baryshnikov applied his strongly concentrated touch...

...they are similar in build—short and muscular...

...Here the heightened tone was most effective...

...Balanchine tries to choreograph to match his music's energetic tempos, however, leaving little room for time-consuming preparation (foot-dragging, if you like), and Baryshnikov displayed some debut rawness with these Donizettian delicacies in his occasional inability to slip over some of the preparatory moves his traditional training has led him to depend upon...

...In his one solo enchainment, presumably set for him by Balanchine—no one else could have possibly attempted it—he inaugurated a series of multiple pirouettes (triples, at least, perhaps quadruples) that opened onto a fan-kicked jump which, when he landed, led to further multiple pirouettes...

...It is enough to say that he is working beside some of the greatest classical dancers of the age, in some of the greatest works of art...